Home of woman ‘who poisoned guests with magic mushrooms’ raided by thieves
The home of a woman accused of killing three people with a beef wellington has been broken into as she spends Christmas behind bars.
Erin Patterson was charged with murdering her former parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, after cooking the dish for them at a family meal on July 29.
She’s also been charged with five counts of attempted murder, which relate to the sole survivor of the lunch – Heather’s husband Ian, 68 – and four alleged attempts to kill her ex-husband, Simon Patterson.
Her home in Leongatha, in the Victoria area of Australia, has reportedly been broken into three times in the last month, with the alleged thieves caught on CCTV entering her home on Christmas Day.
They are accused of stealing a car, a TV and vacuum cleaners and removing CCTV cameras from the home.
A friend of Patterson shared a CCTV grab of one of the alleged thieves on social media. A man was seen standing on the porch wearing a black hoodie, hat, and a mask covering his nose and mouth.
‘We have had a friend’s house broken into in Leongatha three times over the last month or so, last time being Christmas morning,’ the friend said.
‘This time they stole a car, TVs, vacuums. I have finally been able to retrieve CCTV footage from the second time they broke into the property and removed all the outside cameras.
‘Police caught a couple of offenders from the first burglary where they stole a heap of things and we are now thinking they took all spare keys, car keys etc and were not retrieved by the police at the time.
‘They have obviously passed the keys on to mates to come and go from the house as they please.’
Paterson, 49, was arrested and charged in November and has been behind bars ever since.
She’s next due to appear in court on May 3, and she hasn’t yet entered a plea to any of the charges.
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